Historic day for Sydney as Metro comes alive under the city
Sydney has marked a historic moment in the city’s transport history with the doors officially opening on new metro services, extending from the city’s north-west at Chatswood, below the harbour and through the Sydney CBD, to Sydenham.
On 19 August, commuters awoke to an additional 15.5-kilometres of new railway to get them around the busiest parts of the city, with access to fast and reliable services via six new underground stations and metro platforms at Central Station and Sydenham Station.
The inaugural passenger journey under the harbour departed from Sydenham Station’s Platform 1 at 4:54am on Monday 19 August.
New metro services launched to a weekday timetable, which means a service every four minutes during the peak and every 10 minutes during the off peak. For Opal fare consistency, peak times are the same as all other modes of public transport, 6:30am-10am and 3pm-7pm.
There is a four-minute frequency for trains travelling from Tallawong Station between 6:08am-9:24am and 2:54pm-6:46pm. Sydenham Station will see a four-minute frequency from 6:54am-9:46am and 3:16pm-7:32pm.
From Tuesday 20 August, interpeak trains will run every seven minutes, increasing after the first month to a train every five minutes.
A total of 445 new metro services will run through the heart of the city each weekday. The 45 new metro trains can each carry more than 1,150 people and will significantly alleviate pressure on existing transport and road networks.
This transformative new section of railway is the next stage of the M1 Northwest & Bankstown Line, which now extends 51.5-kilometres through Sydney with stops at 21 stations between Tallawong and Sydenham.
The expanded metro network provides connections to Sydney’s employment, financial and retail districts, unlocks the Barangaroo harbourside precinct by delivering its first railway station, and has capacity to move more people across Sydney Harbour in the busiest hour of the peak than the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel combined.
Passengers can plan their metro trips by visiting transportnsw.info.
Over the coming days and weeks, while commuters become familiar with their new city services, there will be additional staff at each station and on trains during operating hours.
Audio and video help points located at each station also connect directly to friendly staff at Metro’s Operations Control Centre who will be available to answer enquiries.
While all city stations are now open, commuters will notice hoarding and minor ongoing work in the precinct areas at most new stations. This work largely involves improvements to roads, footpaths and traffic intersections and will not impact customer journeys.
The new buildings above Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Gadigal and Waterloo stations remain under construction and will progressively open as they are finished.
New turn-up-and-go metro services are the fastest way to get from Sydney’s north west into the Sydney CBD, with a trip on the metro from Chatswood to Sydenham taking approximately 22 minutes, while a journey along the full alignment, from Sydenham to Tallawong takes under 60 minutes.
The remaining 13-kilometres of the M1 Line will open after the conversion of 10 existing stations on the T3 Bankstown Line. The T3 line will close for the works before the end of the year once a consistent level of reliability is reached on Sydney Metro City.
Banner image - Footprints on Gadigal Nura by Nicole Monks, with photography by Wayne Quilliam
